Gyula Fatér, CEO OTP Bank Romania: “We maintained all our goals despite the significant changes around us”

“Inclusiveness is the most important skill nowadays. We live in an environment like never before – stressful and full of uncertainties. Leaders need to be sensitive to that, understand how to help colleagues under these circumstances. If we can ease the stress and uncertainty of the team, the company will be more resilient and work more effective,” Gyula Fatér, CEO OTP Bank Romania told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“We have to find the new ways of leadership since this situation stays with us also in 2021. However, I hope that in 2021 we maintain the hybrid (remote and office) way of working not because physical contacts are limited, but because we can find a balance between work from home and work in the office.”

What leadership skills do you find most useful in the current changing work environment? 

Clearly inclusiveness is the most important skill nowadays. We live in an environment like never before – stressful and full of uncertainties. Leaders need to be sensitive to that, understand how to help colleagues under these circumstances. If we can ease the stress and uncertainty of the team, the company will be more resilient and work more effective.

Which are the empowering mindsets  for building the sense of meaning & purpose, both for employers and employees, to keep each other engaged in reaching the business objectives in 2020 and in the next year?

Of course people are reacting differently in a stressful situation, but after a while everyone tries to accommodate to the new reality and live a “normal life”. A normal life also includes the daily work and daily work even helps to feel that we are good. In my opinion, until now most of the people were delighted or even proud that they are working despite lockdown and pandemic. I see that the difficult part is about to come now. After 7-8 months, we desperately miss the social relationships, and is much harder to find the momentum to work happily. On the top now the weather is also against us: it gets darker and colder. This is why leaders need to re-energize the colleagues, first of all with honest and transparent communication.

What should be a CEO’s and leader’s power message on business resilience conveyed to peers, partners and employees for 2021, in order to enhance the trust and engagement?

I believe that your real message is what you do and how you do it now. If partners, customers or employees feels that we take care now and we support them, they will trust us and will feel engaged. Regarding OTP Bank, the message is clear: we still are investing into our infrastructure (people, digital and physical capabilities), and keep investing further (even opening new branches) to support our colleagues and serve our customers better.

How can a CEO and leader of an organization capitalize on the current challenges to enhance ad promote the company’s competition advantages currently?

At OTP Bank Romania we had a great advantage, namely last year we started a major transformation project with the aim to create an open company culture and act, operate agile. We were prepared for changes and learned flexibility. This gave us an advantage to move from office to home within days and not to lose the rhythm of the projects when working from home. So far we maintained all our goals despite the significant changes around us.

Which are the current concerns of a CEO / leader in 2020? Which are the hopes for 2021?

Beyond the regular ones (how market will recover, how to get and retain talents etc.) my biggest concern is how can we cope with the new management challenge, namely managing organizations remotely and on-line. Frankly no-one knows how it should be done, all we learned is how to manage people through personal presence, but we have no experience on how to motivate colleagues on-line or give feedback on zoom and judge the reactions properly… Also we have lost one of our informal channel to measure of the temperature of the organization: gossips are not anymore spread in the office. We have to find the new ways of leadership since this situation stays with us also in 2021. However, I hope that in 2021 we maintain the hybrid (remote and office) way of working not because physical contacts are limited, but because we can find a balance between work from home and work in the office.

What kind of innovative measures and inclusive leadership initiatives have been applied within your organization this year, to better cope with the current context and bring the business forward in 2021?

The biggest fear is from the uncertainty, so we tried to communicate more than usual. Of course nowadays, communication is mainly on-line. We organized the regular quarterly leadership meeting on zoom and also extended the circle of attendees significantly up to 200. But also created new forums, like on-line town hall meetings and eg. „breakfast with CEO” where colleagues from different teams can chat with the leaders early in the morning. All these serve the purpose to be transparent and keep everyone informed. To avoid gossips we regularly report to all employees, how is the pandemic situation developing in the bank, how many colleagues are affected. Also we tried to keep the normal rhythm and former habits if possible. Major milesstones are celebrated now on zoom, but a bottle of champaign delivered to everyone in advance by a courier to open it and then cheer together.